The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Aspects of the invention relate to the field of photovoltaic modules, such as solar cell modules. More particularly, aspects of the invention relate to efficient harvesting of photovoltaic energy and for efficiently providing this energy to energy demanding devices, especially in a local environment.
In recent years, a solar cell directly converting solar energy to electric energy has increasingly been expected to serve as a next-generation energy source in particular from a viewpoint of global environmental issues. Among various types of solar cells, such as a solar cell using a compound semiconductor or an organic material, a solar cell using silicon crystal is mainly employed these days. However, other material compositions have been investigated and may proof to be advantageously employed in the future.
DE 40 32 569 discloses a photovoltaic system comprising a solar generator with a number of modules connected in series in a string, wherein multiple strings may be arranged in parallel. A DC/AC converter is provided within each module allowing the obtained DC voltage to be converted into an AC feed voltage for a mains network. The photovoltaic system is coupled to the mains network via a central monitoring and control device receiving the data from the individual modules via a common data bus.
The prior art photovoltaic system is disadvantageous in that the least efficient module (e.g. due to temporary shading of the module) in the series arrangement determines the efficiency of a complete string of modules. Moreover, each module has to be provided with a DC/AC converter.